TENET - Review

 

I had to watch this movie twice to even review this. Mr.Nolan this is not fair but thank you though for this experience. Nolan had come up with a great formula for his movies where in audience can still be entertained even if it does not make sense the first time. His mantra being if you don't understand just believe in him and go with the flow. And then there are other kind of audience that want to crack Nolan's code to truly appreciate the genius. 

And now the spoilers will start. So come back here when you have watched the movie at least once.

There is a scene in the beginning of the movie where "The protagonist" is tortured till 7 pm to give up information on his team. Since he does not budge the bad guy reverses the clock few minutes and starts trying again till 7 pm because by 7 pm ideally he should get the information. In any other movie, that is a scene the editor would leave out but in this one that is Nolan's brilliance. It is like laying the foundation for what is to come. Tenet is basically that. Something needs to happen at a particular time and in order for that to happen multiple people and teams of people go back in time in multiple iterations to make that happen. And when you say go back in time, they don't actually go to a particular point in time like we have seen in many other time travel movies. The person or the gang or the element uses a portal to reverse their entropy(For simplicity purposes, let's say a chemical property that will make you live your life going back in time.) and then spend every second going back. 

Either I am too basic to understand everything Nolan envisioned or Nolan missed few loopholes but it is all in the spirit of a good cinematic experience. So it should be excused like an explosion freezing you or fire traveling towards the car on gasoline or how the climax blast will end humanity etc. Tenet is not completely clear to everyone and that explains the numerous fan theories on the internet. But then again Nolan did not make it abstract enough to leave much for our own interpretation. 

The climax is so chaotic. It definitely needs multiple viewings in straight timeline and reverse to completely follow whats happening. But even in that chaos, Nolan leaves his genius throughout. The whole episode starts where it ends. Look for the jeep at the beginning of the episode. And oh yeah at the beginning of the movie, John David Washington is introduced catching a bullet from his gun's magazine as a precursor to the scene that would come later where he actually does that. There is absolutely no single frame that comes across as unnecessary. You just think it is in your first watch. 

The background score is what makes the movie totally worth watching even in repeated viewings. The cast is perfect.  Watching Mr.Washington speak and walk is like watching the senior Washington. It is a nice reminder of the charm of Denzel. Being an Indian I am delighted to see Dimple Kapadia in a full length role. I forgive you Nolan now for missing out Indian soldiers in Dunkirk. 

All said and done, the story writer in Nolan took precedence over the screenplay writer and that makes this a lesser Nolan flick. The movie is definitely not Nolan's best but definitely one of the finest Hollywood mainstream movie experience if you submit yourself completely to Nolan faith.